The Element of Surprise
by garbygal
Summary: When a girl Ray dated nine-months ago shows up very pregnant, life suddenly changes for Ray in every way.


_Note: Thank you all for being so patient during my writer's block work situations. Just a note- the more reviews/follows/favorites a story gets, the more quickly I will review- so if you like a story- please let me know so I can update before the not so popular ones! Thanks for reading!_

Chapter One

It wasn't all that unusual that Ray once again found himself late for his shift. Of course it was raining, making it even more of a fun journey. They had recently reworked the L-schedule and that re-working gave Ray the option of being incredibly early or just on time, and so far Ray had been taking his chances cutting it close. Ray figured maybe it was a sign- maybe he should finally invest in his own vehicle or his own home- grow up a little bit.

As he rushed into the ER, shaking his hair to get the water out, hoping that Carter was too tied up with a patient to notice he was tarty for the third shift in a row. After walking through triage, he punched the button to go back into the ER department, and unfortunately instead of Carter being tied up, he was standing behind the admit desk watching as Ray walked in. 'Ray, you're late again." Carter called out to him.

"I'm sorry Carter. I'm still trying to get use to the new train schedule." Ray announced as he headed towards the doctor's lounge.

"Try a little harder Ray. I don't want to have to write you up." Carter replied, grabbing his next chart.

"Sure boss." Ray replied, walking into the lounge.

The ER was a lot different now since Greg's death. Everything had been low key since then. It seemed like people were having trouble accepting his death. Abby and Luka were both moving around the ER working- the people hadn't changed, but the overall environment had changed. He found himself hoping that it would come back soon. In the lounge Ray found a maintenance guy updating the lockers for the new students. Tony Gates had left, heading to Wisconsin to raise Sarah closer to her grandparents. Samantha Taggert had also left, going with him to raise her son in a better place and also to be with Tony. They were still looking for another nurse to replace her and hadn't found one yet that he was aware of- leading to the other nurses working a lot more frequently.

Pulling on his lab coat and running a hand through his rain-slickened hair, Ray headed back out to the ER to begin his shift. Starting today Ray was a full-fledged R3 and in a few days he would have his own medical students again. He was enjoying his time without them- he was good at teaching them, but he rather spend the time working on his own. As he reached up to grab a chart, a sudden shout of "Ray!" startled him.

Turning around, Ray saw Haleh running to him, a yellow trauma gown clutched in her hand. "What's going on?" Ray asked her.

"Incoming trauma." Haleh reported, "Single-car MVC. 25-year-old female, nine-months pregnant. Brief LOC, closed tibia fracture." Haleh reported as they headed towards the ER bay doors.

"When are they arriving?" Ray began to pull on the trauma gown and then his gloves.

"Right now!" she urgently replied, rushing towards the bay doors.

Sure enough, the ambulance sirens blared as they walked into the ambulance bay. Abby walked out with Carter as the ambulance stopped and Doris opened the back doors. "Unidentified twenty-five-year-old female MVC. Brief loss of consciousness, obvious tibia fracture on the left. Nine months pregnant." Doris reported, and then gave the young woman's vitals.

"And the baby?" Carter asked.

"Baby appears to be fine, no contractions." Doris replied.

"Jerry," Carter called once they got into the ER department, "Where can we go?"

"Trauma one is open." Jerry replied back.

They locked the gurney into place into Trauma One, and then Ray immediately began to check her vitals. Her pulse was good, heart rate normal and she was breathing just fine- all good signs. When Haleh opened her shirt, so they could treat her better, Ray suddenly froze. The tattoo on her shoulder was familiar. He had seen it before.

Searching his mind, it was like time was frozen. Suddenly he was locked into place, his mind flashing back to whenever it was he had met her- it seemed to him it had been about ten months ago. She had been blond at the time- that's why he had not immediately recognized her, as the hair was not a dark chestnut brown. He had met her after a concert right before he left the band. A week straight she had been at their shows- right in Ray's line-of-sight every time. That last night he had made his way over to her after the show, and for a couple of weeks they had a fairly wild relationship. Then, just as quickly as it had started, it was over. She left without a trace- without a word, and he hadn't seen her again.

His mind slowly processed the timing of everything. He could not ignore that the time seemed to imply that her pregnancy may have had a large part in her leaving him- but it couldn't be his, could it? They had been very careful- he was a doctor after all and he had learned his lessons after things like the Chloe incident. He had not been aware of any other guys- she had been single for months before dating him according to what she said- not that she would necessarily have told him the truth.

"Ray!" Abby's shouting made Ray snap back to attention and he realized that he had just essentially daydreamed and frozen up in the middle of trauma.

"I'm sorry." He quickly replied,

"Ray are you okay?" Carter asked as he continued to work over the young girl.

"I know her." Ray finally replied. "I saw her for a couple of weeks before she disappeared- about ten months ago."

Neither Abby nor Carter had to do the math to figure out exactly what Ray may be implying. They knew what it could mean. "Ray," Carter was the first to respond, "Are you the child's father?"

Ray just stared back, not sure how to answer. "I don't know for sure, but I could be." He simply replied.

"Out Ray. Get Luka or Morris to replace you."Carter ordered.

Still in a daze, Ray walked out of the trauma room. No matter if he was the father or not, Ray was no use to them right now. He ran into Luka as he left the trauma room. "Where's Morris?" Ray asked him.

"I'm not sure." Luka replied, "Do they need help in there?"

Nodding, Ray answered, "I know the victim."

"Just make sure you pick up another chart." Luka told him as he headed into Trauma One. "What do we have?" he asked as he pulled on fresh gloves.

"Twenty-five-year-old female, nine months pregnant, unconscious, probably internal bleeding from the spleen but we can't get a good look due to the pregnancy." Carter was working the ultrasound. "We'll have to get her up to surgery for a C-section and repair."

"How does Ray now her? Is it his sister or something?" Luka asked as he jumped in.

"According to Ray, there is likelihood that this is his child." Carter replied.

Luka, clearly surprised, his eyebrows arched, replied, "Ray's child?"

Carter just nodded. "He said it's possible with the timing and what he knows." Abby added.

"It is his child." A soft voice interrupted the conversation.

After a couple of units the young woman had perked up and woke up. "How are you feeling ma'am?" Abby asked.

"I'm feeling okay, but my belly hurts." She replied.

"We think you have some internal bleeding." Abby told her, "To be safe we are going to deliver your baby and then you'll have surgery for the bleeding. Can you tell me your name?"

The young woman nodded softly. "Laila. Laila Graves." she replied. "Is there a chance that I could talk to Ray?" she asked.

Abby looked at Luka and Carter who nodded in confirmation that she was stable enough. "Just for a few minutes while surgery arrives."

The young woman nodded her understanding and Abby left the room to find Ray. She saw him hovering around the admit desk, still completely in a daze. She rushed over and Ray looked up in a panic. "Is she okay?"

Abby nodded. "She asked to see you. She wants to talk to you."

Ray looked down. He knew what this probably meant. "Did she say anything?" he nervously ran a hand through his hair.

Nodding again, Abby replied, "But you should hear it from her."

Ray nodded, and then nervously walked to Trauma One. By now Luke had left, Carter remaining to monitor her until surgery arrived. Haleh was also there, checking her vitals. As soon as the doors has brushed open signaling his arrival, Laila called out, "Ray?"

Slowly he walked towards Laila on the bed. "Hi Laila." He quietly greeted her in return, knowing she was about to change his life forever.

"I'm sorry I never called you back." Laila finally started. "I found out about this and I knew it wasn't what you wanted-or needed- while you were in residency and your band. I thought I could just disappear so you never had to deal with this."

"Why would I want you to hide my child from me?" Ray was confused how she could assume that he would be better off without the child or without even knowing about her.

"You're a rocker and a doctor Ray. You don't want to settle down, to raise a baby."

"You should have let me decide that!" Ray somewhat angrily replied, warm tears brimming n his eyes.

"Surgery's here. Dr. Colburn will meet us in surgery for the C-section." Dr. Dubenko announced, much too cheerfully.

Ray could never understand how Dr. Dubenko was always so cheery, but he was more distracted by the thought that he wished it had been Neela to come down to surgery so her had someone to talk to about this situation. "Dr. Barnett," Carter finally addressed him, "Go up to surgery with her. I will find someone to cover the rest of your shift. You should be with her."

"Thank you." Ray replied.

"Why is Dr. Barnett coming along?" Dr. Dubenko immediately questioned in confusion.

"The baby is his child." Dr. Carter simply replied.

"Oh." Dr. Dubenko hung his head down to look at the chart. "I didn't know that you were expecting any children. Come along daddy."

They slowly brought Laila towards the elevator to bring her to surgery. "I had no idea that you were going to be a father or that you had such a beautiful girlfriend." Dr. Dubenko added.

"Either did I." Ray quietly replied.

Immediately Dr. Dubenko got quiet. He didn't know what exactly was going on between these young people, but obviously it wasn't a standard situation and he knew he should just let it go for now. It was pretty often very strange things happened at County- especially to the doctors working there. The tension between the couple seemed pretty high, so Dr. Dubenko just stood silently as they rode up to the surgery floor. The door finally chimed and opened to Dr. Coleburn waiting. "Is this the pregnant MVC?"she asked.

"Yes." Dr. Dubenko replied. "25-year-old female, nine-months-pregnant. We think she had internal bleeding- probably her spleen but we're not getting a good look with the baby."

They started pulling the gurney towards Operating Room 3. "And what is Dr. Barnett doing gracing us with his presence?" Dr. Coleburn asked.

"It's my child." Ray replied, still in disbelief, shocked as he heard the words leave his lips- he was going to be a father.

"I didn't know you were going to be a father!" Dr. Coleburn replied in shock. "Congratulations Dr. Barnett. Go get changed into some scrubs so we can deliver your baby."


End file.
